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What we do

The Lightbeam Project at DIKSHA School, India

The Lightbeam Project is a team of international volunteers that reaches out to children with limited educational resources at DIKSHA School near New Delhi, India.

Children from grade 2 (age 6) to grade 11 (age17) meet ‘Beamers’ online each week to explore the internet, develop their digital literacy and crucially get connected to the world on a very personal level. This provides the children with the opportunity to experience worlds far removed from their own.

In a session children investigate news, technology, culture, animals, interesting parts of the world etc. the sky really is the limit. Beamers are the ones to bring themes to the learners with provoking questions, but the children are free to explore as they see fit and report back. In this way the young people become their own teachers.

Sessions are never the same! There’s fun, games, stories, crafts too! Whatever the Beamer feels the children would connect to, that would of interest and motivating. It’s the absolute opposite of teaching!

DIKSHA is an NGO that runs a non-profit school in Palam Vihar, Gurugram, on the outskirts of New Delhi that provides free and quality education to children from low-income families in the neighbourhood. Children are given a nutritious mid-day meal and snack as well as uniforms, shoes, and books.

In 2017 the school started to offer these investigative sessions, under the name of the Granny Cloud, with the support of the Concern India Foundation, to enhance the inspiration and positivity of learning. The Lightbeam Project has now taken over the challenge from The Granny Cloud.

The project is inspired by the work of Prof. Sugata Mitra who created the concept of Self Organized Learning Environment (SOLE). You may know of Prof Mitra’s prizewinning TEDTalk 2016 ‘Let’s build a school in the cloud’ https://bit.ly/3cVtKNu, in which he explains about ‘Hole in the Wall’ experiments which found that groups of kids could learn to navigate computers and the internet by themselves, and teach themselves English to do that. He also discovered that children could go much further when their exploration of language and the internet was supported and encouraged by nurturing and interesting adults.

THE LIGHTBEAM PROJECT -- Success story

“Initially when we started this program five years back, children sat blankly in front of the computer screen and had no idea as to how to get started. They were excited just to see these computers. Slowly but steadily, by challenging them with just the right questions according to their age and grade, they got excited and curious to know the answers.

They started asking each other about the function of the keys on the keyboard (which we were not supposed to tell them as per our programme curriculum) as this project is based on Self- Learning. Now we are glad, that they can use the keyboard efficiently and read more instead of just seeing pictures or watching videos on YouTube.

The Lightbeam Project is supported by volunteers all around the globe through Skype. These sessions are known as “Beamer session”. The volunteers connect with children for 30 minutes’ teaching session and making learning happen. These sessions have 11-15 students in each group.

Beamers like knowing the children’s names so that they can connect with them personally. They offer a lot of encouragement and enthusiasm to the children and make them stay relaxed.

It is the beauty of the The Lightbeam Project where people meet around the world on Skype and work towards the welfare of the children. As we all know that the innocence of children is beyond any boundaries and it’s just the opportunities that take them to different fields.

The key focus of Skype sessions is to ensure the ongoing bond between the Beamers and children, a bit of fun and of course stimulating curiosity and reasoning through small activities. With positive experiences, we sustained during the pandemic and continued with WhatsApp groups.

We are lucky to be a part of this beautiful project.”

Monika Banga, The Lightbeam Project Co-ordinator

Our Team

Monika Banga

Monika has close to 15 years of proven experience in Project Management. She has strong relationship management & communication skills in dealing with Beamers, peers and children. She has solid problem solving, work ethic, interpersonal and teamwork skills. She has experience in conducting SOLE and Beamers session. She has Masters in International Business from University of Bradford, UK.

Lesley Keast

My name’s Lesley Keast and I’m from England but I’ve lived in Spain for

16 years. I’ve been a teacher of children for a long time, but one of the great things about the Lightbeam Project is that the children teach themselves…and often me ! . It’s a delight to see the children develop their digital literacy skills, reading information and assessing whether it’s what they need. Over the years I’ve seen the groups become increasingly confident using English to communicate, often using humour. Fun’s an important part of our sessions! We often search for information around a theme, starting with easy questions that develop into investigating more ambiguous questions that are more open for the groups to interpret. As a result answers are often surprising and unpredictable and the children are keen to have an interested Beamer to report back to!

Manureet Grewal

Hi ! My name is Manureet Grewal. I live in Sydney ,Australia but I have spent all of my childhood and most of my adult life in India. My culture and values are deeply embedded in India. I love reading and enjoy traveling to new places. I have grown up watching Hindi cinema and my fondness for music has grown from it. I started interacted with children at Diksha and have enjoyed every minute of our sessions. Their enthusiasm sparks the light for knowledge in them.

Lakshmi

Lakshmi. I have lived in Hong Kong for about 27 years. But currently residing

in Chennai, India. I was a preschool teacher for many years in Hong Kong and have also worked as a recruitment consultant. I enjoy reading, singing and engaging with children. I have been part of Granny Cloud Since 2014 and have interacted with many of its centres.

Parul

Parul. I live in Hong Kong. I was a preschool teacher for many years in TLBP

Muscat, Bangkok and Hong Kong. I love books and enjoyed reading with the children. I also enjoy drawing, painting in different media and crafts. I look forward to being a interacting with the children of Grade 5 and younger.

Sue

Sue. I worked as a tutor for the National Childbirth Trust, and I have always had an interest in working with children. I’m enjoying being a Beamer at Diksha school, where I interact with grade three children. My interest are art and handicrafts, mostly doing water colour painting, and I love encouraging the children in doing art projects.

Phillippa

Phillippa. I've been a teacher of English for over 20 years. I'm happy to now be a Beamer with Diksha school. I'm originally from the UK, but I have lived in the Czech Republic since 2002. I love working with children and young people on global projects. In my free time, I like being in nature, walking with my two dogs, Cookie and Snoopy, and reading.

Afrah Farahid

My name is Afrah Farahid. I live in Muscat , Oman but born and raised in Sri Lanka. I’m a psychology student. I’ve been interacting with Diksha students for over 4 years now and it’s been such a wonderful experience. I’ve always loved sharing the gift of knowledge. Apart from that I love reading, travelling, getting my hands on volunteer work and meeting up new people

Maria

My name’s Maria, I'm from Lisboa, Portugal. My professional activity has been linked to Photography,advertising and working with children between 10 and 18 years old. Not being a teacher,however , I have used my knowledge to help kids to succeed in their studies. I love to explore new places and meet different people

Hiroaki Kato

Hi, my name is Hiroaki Kato. I am a teacher at a private tutoring school in Japan. I joined The Granny Cloud in 2018 and it gave me the precious opportunity to be a part of The LightBeam Project. I am happy to explore Big Questions with the amazing students at Diksha School.